Invercargill, New Zealand

Invercargill is very much a working town, rather grim and is so far south that the local government offers free tuition to Uni students, just to get people down there.Obviously going south in NZ is the same as going north in UK and by the time we hit Invercargill we had traveled about 4,000 km, mostly south.This means that it is bloody cold and very wet. However, an area known as the Catlins starts near the town which is a lovely place to spend a day or two.It is full of odd rocks, Seal colonies, blow holes, isolated lighthouses and dramatic views.We stopped off at one beach where at low tide a fossilised Jurassic forest is revealed.For those who like myself have no idea when the Jurassic period was, it was 18m years ago.I find numbers like that a bit much and so big that they loose a little meaning, so I allowed myself to be impressed by being able to clearly see remains of wood that was around before the Roman Empire!The same beach also had a lot of giant Kelp, which is very very big seaweed and when seen in the sea from a distance looks like hair, but on dry land up close looks like some kind of alien from the Dr Who special effects department.

We spent one night in the Catlins in a very remote field/campsite which boasted long drop loos, ground so wet I nearly bogged in and fantastic views over the beach to an angry sea.My middle of the night pee was particularly grim, but we didn't get mugged by lunatics, which is always a bonus.